Indy Film Fest: Fremde Tochter (Strange Daughter)

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Set in a modern-day Germany beset by strife between working-class natives and largely Muslim immigrants, “Fremde Tochter” (Stranger Daughter) gives us a star-crossed romance between two people who have every reason to hate.

Elisa Schlott plays Lena, a 17-year-old who lives with her single mother, (Heike Makatsch), an emotionally fragile woman who has just lost her job at a used car dealership because he resisted her boss’ advances. Lena spends splits her time between school (occasionally), working the evening shift as an office cleaning lady and partying till dawn with her friends.

She’s a hard-bitten, opportunistic young woman, a teen already approaching middle-age disappointment and disaffection. Lena is also clearly prejudiced against Muslims, tossing insults about building bombs and the like.

After trading barbs with Farid (Hassan Akkouch), a young Muslim man working nights alone in the office, they begin a frenetic love affair that takes place entire amidst the cubicles. (It stretches credulity that their antics, include a game of nude hide-and-seek, escapes the notice of other eyes or security cameras.) Neither wants to admit that their feelings have deepened, or reveal the attachment to someone not of their tribe.

Things go on. Their affair is revealed, causing much consternation to Lena’s mother and Farid’s family, especially his militant brother, Jamal (Mohamed Issa). Each must face a choice that includes confronting their own prejudice. Is there enough love to overcome all the enmity?

Director Stephan Lacant, who co-wrote the script with Karsten Dahlem, gives us a quietly observational film that perhaps rushes too quickly through his characters’ challenges and changes. Lena seems to transform from an Arab-baiter just this side of a skinhead to a wannabe convert who embraces the hijab she had previously mocked in just a scene or two.

Still, this is a searing look at how cultural change can result in suspicions, resentment, and occasionally love.